Read between the lines
Great news. About time. But when? Finally! It’ll never happen. A game changer. We’ve heard this before. How long?
There were many and varied reactions to the Government’s signal this week that Northern Powerhouse Rail can proceed, some 10 years after George Osborne first announced it.
A total of £1.1 billion has been committed for design and other preparatory work during this Parliament and a cap of £45 billion has been put on the whole project - with mayoral authorities expected to pick up the tab for any overspends.
On the face of it there was not much in the announcement for the North East but, crucially, there is a commitment to work with the North East Combined Authority on restoring the Leamside Line - the most important 21 miles in the region (I may have said that before).
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness, said: “This is a firm commitment to the North East, and it is one step further towards a transformation of rail services joining up the region.”
The Northumberland Line has already shown the difference a rail connection can make but the Leamside Line is more than a transport project - it unlocks the space for thousands of new homes and will be a driver of economic growth and inward investment.
Regionally transformative - but also a major national infrastructure project, as we should keep on reminding those that hold the purse strings in Whitehall.
The Leamside Line would provide an alternative freight route, freeing up capacity on the congested East Coast Main Line for more passenger trains and thereby benefiting the national economy.
Summit Pt 1
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness yesterday hosted a green energy and innovation summit in Newcastle attended by 270 delegates including investors and developers from four continents.
They say timing is everything. The conference came:
in the week that Lloyds said it would make more than £1 billion of new finance available to North East businesses in 2026;
the day after the Government’s biggest offshore wind auction;
the same day as a landmark Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the North East Combined Authority, the region’s three ports and Newcastle Airport to strengthen global connectivity, drive investment, and raise the region’s profile as a green energy hub.
Delegates were told that the region hopes to soon generate up to half of the UK’s energy needs from offshore sources, creating and sustaining 50,000 jobs - double the number currently employed in the sector
Mayor McGuinness said: “This is a once in a generation opportunity and one we need to seize to help shape a brighter, sustainable future for our region. The North East can lead the UK’s green energy transition - not only by powering the nation, but by creating thousands of jobs and securing long-term investment for our communities.”
Summit Pt 2
Lloyds Banking Group and the Office for Investment (OfI) were delivery partners in the summit.
Earlier this week Lloyds announced that it is to make more than £1 billion of new finance available to regional businesses. North East ambassador Emily Cox said: “We’re backing businesses big and small, from transformational developments at Newcastle Airport, the Port of Tyne and Dogger Bank, to local businesses like Holystone Civils that form the backbone of the region’s unique supply chain.”
Lloyds Chair Sir Robin Budenberg told the summit that the region has the “biggest opportunity in the country in green energy”.
Summit Pt 3
The North East sits in prime position to take advantage of the new opportunities thrown up by Wednesday’s big offshore wind auction.
Berwick Bank, off the east coast of Scotland, is the largest planned offshore wind project in the world. And Dogger Bank South, off the coast of Yorkshire, is not going small.
The Independent described the auction as a major win for energy secretary Ed Miliband, who said: “This is a historic win for those who want Britain to stand on our own two feet, controlling our own energy rather than depending on markets controlled by petrostates and dictators. It is a monumental step towards clean power by 2030 and the price secured in this auction is 40% lower than the alternative cost of building and operating a new gas plant.”
We do, of course, need the National Grid (Eyes & Ears 09.01.26) to be upgraded and able to cope with all this extra electricity coming its way!
Three become one?
The police forces in Northumbria, Durham and Cleveland could be merged into one, under proposals being considered by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
She is expected to unveil plans to reform policing in the coming weeks and hinted that the changes would be sweeping when she addressed a conference of police leaders in November last year.
One proposal, according to The Times, is to replace the 43 police forces in England and Wales with 12 larger regional constabularies in a bid to increase efficiency.
Louise Guest, Chair of the Durham Police Federation, the body that represents rank-and-file officers, said Durham was a “community-led force” and the link with local officers would be “eroded” if it became a region-wide operation with Cleveland and Northumbria.
Cuts - and more cuts
Gateshead Council has begun talking to staff and unions about redundancies after revealing a funding gap of £20.5m in its medium-term financial plan.
The local authority plans to plug the gap using £4m in reserves, carrying out £10.6m of cuts and efficiencies and implementing £5.9m of social care “interventions”. The quote marks are mine because I don’t know what constitutes an “intervention” or how they can be aggregated to save so much money - I can’t imagine it’s good news for anyone in need of social care, however.
Newcastle City Council, meanwhile, needs to make £40m of cuts in the next three years and Labour leader Karen Kilgour has defended delaying the bulk of the savings until years two and three.
Labour is currently running a minority administration. There are elections in May when all 78 seats in Newcastle will be up for grabs. Labour may not be running the council in years two and three.
Gone too soon
It would be so easy to fill this edition, and many more, with the hundreds of tributes paid this week to top lawyer Neil Warwick OBE who passed away before Christmas.
The news was broken on LinkedIn by Knights, where Neil, one of the country's leading Competition and European law specialists, was a partner.
His son Richard later posted on LinkedIn: “My dad was solicitor and partner in private practice for the best part of three decades and his achievements are too vast to mention in one post. He was a large reason for me wanting to enter the legal sector as I admired the way he used his work to help others.”
Neil, who spent 20 years of his career at Dickinson Dees, now Womble Bond Dickinson, was Chair of New Writing North. They posted: “We are saddened that he will never get to see the centre for writing and publishing fully realised but his approach, wisdom and leadership will be remembered.”
Durham praised
A Corporate Peer Challenge by the Local Government Association (LGA) has praised the new Reform administration at Durham County Council for its “strong strategic direction and stability”.
Officers from the LGA interviewed more than 100 councillors, officers and staff in October 2025 and assessed the council according to five core areas: local priorities and outcomes; organisational and place leadership; governance and culture; financial planning and management; and capacity for improvement.
Green stars
The Department for Transport has classified every local authority in England as green, amber or red for their progress in improving the quality of roads and dealing with potholes. Ten councils in the wider North East were rated amber but special green mentions were given to Darlington and Middlesbrough.
Suits you
Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah received her damehood in an outfit designed by Newcastle College University Centre student Lamin Gibba that represented her Geordie, Irish and Nigerian heritage.
Inspiration for the suit was taken from West African fabric and the famous colours of Newcastle United. She also wore a mini trilby hat - designed by Margaret Woodliff Wright - which used black and white fabric along side green and orange beads.
A quick word
Kim McGuinness is one of 10 Labour mayors who have sent a letter of support to Minneapolis major Jacob Frey after the shooting of Renee Good last week. “The world is witnessing the vital role mayors play in protecting our communities,” the letter says. “Mayor Frey and supporting US mayors are demonstrating that they lead with compassion and facts, not fear and force.” A £1.3m study into the impact of police no longer attending mental health call-outs is to be led by Dr Iain McKinnon, a senior Newcastle University lecturer, and Professor Nicola Clibbens of Northumbria University. MP Luke Myer is supporting a petition launched by Middlesbrough musician Jamie Sample to have a statue of Chris Rea installed in the singer’s home town. A Monet masterpiece is to go on show at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery from tomorrow - one of only four venues chosen by the National Gallery to display The Petit Bras of the Seine at Argenteuil. Former Sunderland chairman Sir Bob Murray has received an honorary degree from Durham University. “There's nothing quite like being recognised by your own,” said Sir Bob, who is from Consett. He already has honorary degrees from Leeds Beckett, Sunderland and Northumbria universities. Amazon has launched a number of test flights of its delivery drones from its base in Darlington in Symmetry Park, ahead of the service going live later this year. The overnight closure of the urgent treatment centre at Shotley Bridge Hospital in County Durham is to be extended for a further three months because of staff shortages. The demolition of the Gateshead Highway flyover is going to take longer than originally expected and the council is now refusing to commit to a timeline. Work will not begin until March at the earliest. Bringing the 2025 Mercury Prize to Newcastle generated more than £1.4m for the regional economy, according to a report commissioned by Newcastle City Council.
Side move
The next chapter in the inspiring but chequered story of Side, whose Newcastle Quayside gallery has been a beacon for documentary photography for decades, will see it teaming up with Baltic.
It is to open a curatorial office at the Gateshead centre for contemporary art from February, thereby becoming its ‘cultural tenant’, writes David Whetstone in Cultured. North East.
The initiative has been hailed by both parties as an exciting but pragmatic move in challenging times – and timely because of two anniversaries coming up in 2027, Side’s 50th and Baltic’s 25th.
Watch the birdie!
The world’s biggest garden wildlife survey is coming up soon. Tony Henderson reports that 10,500 people in the North East took part in last year’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, spending an hour watching and counting the birds in their garden, allotment, balcony or local park, then reporting their results.
You can register here to take part in this year’s event which runs from January 23-25.
Scaling the heights
It took two and a half years to design and build and is valued at £100,000 but Fighteraces, a radio-controlled aircraft builder based at Drum Industrial Estate in Chester-le-Street can now look back on a job well done.
The five-metre long Fokker 70 airliner was commissioned by a US filmmaker who was so impressed by the scale and quality that a second model, twice the size, was commissioned midway through construction.
Business bites
Newcastle-based law firm Ward Hadaway is celebrating its fifth consecutive year of revenue growth with managing partner Steven Petrie particularly pleased that growth was registered across all offices - with Manchester achieving a 42% increase. Newcastle-based Origin Tech, which uses satellite data and AI to identify and seal water leaks without the need for digging, has secured multi-million pound investment from BGF. John Marsden, who founded the company with Phil Surtees, said “We set out on a mission to become water industry innovators. In a short space of time, we have turned that vision into a reality, saving over three billion litres of water and repairing more than 10,000 leaks.” Property consultancy Bradley Hall has opened an office in Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, its first permanent presence in southern England. Durham-based Swinburne Maddison has recorded the strongest financial performance in the law firm’s history with managing partner Jonathan Moreland reporting a 20% increase in turnover and a 14% jump in profits. The latest economic survey results from the North East Chamber of Commerce show a cautious confidence among members with cost pressures easing and domestic demand strengthening. Gateshead firm XR Therapeutics and Newcastle-based Literal Labs are included in the Startups 100 Index, which showcases businesses in the UK showing “technological innovation, impressive financials, market disruption, and a strong customer base or following”.
Team Valley-based Southbay Civil Engineering has started work on designing and constructing a new causeway in the Falklands, its first overseas contract. Jan Forster Estates collapsed owing creditors more than £328,000. A pre-pack deal saw administrators sell the business to founder Jan Forster’s daughter Angela Dennison for £55,000, to be paid in 10 monthly instalments. Pawnbroking and foreign-currency retailer Ramsdens has reported a record year where group revenue exceeded £100m for the first time. Kitchen brand Magnet, which employs 450 people in Darlington, has been sold by the Swedish Nobia Group to UK private equity firm Alteri. Gateshead technology services provider Advantex has completed a management buy-out following a seven-figure investment arranged through NEL Fund Managers. Newcastle-based Burnetts Solicitors has been certified as a B Corporation, joining a global movement of more than 10,000 business organisations committed to balancing profit with purpose.
2009 ad break
A couple are having a house-warming party and the woman can’t wait to let her friends see her walk-in wardrobe. Cue some very excited shrieks and screams - only for them to be drowned out moments later by the men.
What could possibly have made them get even more excited?
This Heineken ad from 2009 won a highly coveted D&AD (British Design & Art Direction) pencil which are awarded to creators of truly exceptional work.
THE WIDER VIEW
A very good question
Sky News raised the issue of student debt this week - and the figures didn’t just surprise me but Peter Stefanovic as well, a lawyer, political commentator and a man with 533,000 followers on Twitter.
The screenshot above shows the annual loan repayments made by students (the blue bars) versus the interest charged every year (the red bars) for the 12 years from 2012. The Government are charging graduates an interest rate of RPI + 3%. The banks wouldn’t do that.
ITV News political reporter Shehab Khan shared his story on Twitter, with an explanation as to why this issue will become a bigger one.
And right on cue, Nadia Whittome, MP for Nottingham East for seven years delivered…
The i Paper, meanwhile, carried an opinion piece by their deputy money editor Callum Mason who says that those who took out student loans after 2012 have had the goalposts moved multiple times, leaving many with decades of debt with no escape.
“Every month, I repay hundreds of pounds towards a loan I took out when I was 18. When I left university in 2016, this loan totalled around £60,000. A decade of repayments later, and it is £84,000. Last year alone, I accrued £5,945 of interest.”
I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this.
Nicholas
The big political story yesterday involved a man who wanted to leave the Conservative Party with all guns blazing only to find that someone had taken the bullets out.
Ian Dunt wrote a Substack column with some disparate thoughts on Badenoch vs Jenrick. “Let’s just start by recognising that this is very funny,” he said.
“Watching Jenrick engage in Westminster scheming is like observing Tom hatch some kind of fiendish plan against Jerry. He is so obvious, so utterly transparent, that you can interpret every move before he even makes it.”
Great edition and a fab cartoon. The icing on the cake!